Robot 6

Comics A.M. | Stan Lee to receive visual-effects award

Awards | The Visual Effects Society has named Stan Lee as the recipient of the VES 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors individuals whose “lifetime body of work has made a significant and lasting contribution to the art and/or science of the visual effects industry by way of artistry, invention and/or groundbreaking work.” Previous recipients include George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ray Harryhausen and James Cameron. The award will be presented Feb. 7 at the 10th annual VES Awards. [press release]

Organizations | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund reports it raised $12,500 last weekend at New York Comic Con. [CBLDF]

Awards | Comic-Con International has opened nominations for the The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, which awarded to “an individual retailer who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large.” [CCI]

Publishing | Archaia founder, and now chief creative officer, Mark Smylie is profiled by a local newspaper: “I don’t know what I did in another life to wind up publishing Mouse Guard, but yeah, David [Petersen] basically brought us lightning in a bottle.” [NorthJersey.com]

Greg Rucka

Conventions | Greg Rucka talks about his experiences at New York Comic Con and GeekGirlCon in Seattle: “One of the most extraordinary things about the show, for me, was its atmosphere. A contrasted with the hungry – almost desperate – feel of the floor at NYCC this past weekend, GGC felt practically like a family gathering, and I suppose, in a way, it was just that. The fact is, women remain under-represented and poorly served in so many realms of geek culture; having a convention that speaks to that lack, that attempts to address it, is more than a worthy goal; it may well be a holy one. I was glad to attend, I was honored to be a guest, and I am sincerely proud to have attended.” [Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether]

Conventions | Fans attending the Wizard World Mid-Ohio Con this weekend will have the opportunity to see the holder of the Guinness World Record for “largest comic book” — the Huge Glass Comic Book, a 500-pound glass comic. Each of its 12 pages is four feet high and three feet wide, all laser etched on quarter inch glass. [Convention Scene]

Retailers | Vaneta Rogers rounds up reactions from retailers to the second month of DC’s New 52. [Newsarama]

Comics | Here’s a perspective we don’t see too often: Martha Cornog interviews DC Comics Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras about how New 52 will play out in libraries — how they will collect the series, how they will tie it in to earlier books, etc. [Library Journal]

Manga | Sean Gaffney reads the first volume of Drops of God, a manga about wine tasting that has gotten a lot of press and has actually boosted sales of the featured wines in France and Japan. [A Case Suitable for Treatment]

Business | Alan Evans has a great consumer piece on print-on-demand services, in which he gets the price for a hypothetical comic and directly compares prices and services offered. [The Paper Wings Community, via Sean Kleefeld]